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ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

ORIGINAL: rtrapasso

OK - i've come up with an idea for faster-than-light communication (patent pending)... not sure if it's original (i.e. - if i am the first to think of it), but i'll claim it as mine! [:'(]

Recent experiments have shown that you can get quantum entanglement of (say) photons. You can separate the photons then measure the polarization of one photon. If it is vertically polarized, the other photon which is quantumlyy entangled will also be vertically polarized.

Here's the cool part: they've separated quantumly entangled photons by several miles then measured their polarization at the same time. They were (as predicted) the same. In order for any information to have passed between the two particles, it would have had to travel at least 10,000x the speed of light.

Now: it is possible to CHANGE the polarization of a photon by passing it through a rotating device... so if the photon was vertically polarized, it could be changed to horizontally polarized. If it was horizontally polarized to start with, then it would stay horizontally polarized.

So, you get a bunch of entangled photons, and keep half for yourself and send half to your friend in a space-ship near (say) Alpha Centauri (or whatever). You've arranged a code so that if you read the polarization of a particle and it is vertically polarized, that is a 0 (zero), horizontally polarized is a 1 (one).

So, you want to communicate digitally with your friend. You want to send the first digit in your digital message as a zero, so you put in the first entangled photon into a vertical rotator - it will become a vertically polarized if it wasn't, and will stay vertically polarized if it was that way to start. Your friend on Alpha Centauri measures the first quantumly entangled photon in his bucket, and it will be vertically polarized, and interpreted as a ZERO. Repeat for the rest of the digital message.

Of course, there are a number of practical problems with this approach - but, hey, it's good enough for science fiction! [:D]

Photon transfer of information at FTL has been SO done...[:'(]

ORIGINAL: stuman

ORIGINAL: Onime No Kyo

Morning tithe.

I'd like to join your cheering section, Des. We may not have the short skirts or shapely legs but we have boundless enthusiasm.


(I'd post a picture but that might cause the world to end).

ORIGINAL: stuman

ORIGINAL: ctangus

It's probably been 2-3 years since I've tithed. I hope no one wants to collect arrears... [:D]

Is Martin (VSWG) still hanging out?

Welcome back, and you owe THE THREAD 792 posts.